Construction has begun on homes in Cedarbrook Third Addition.
A cement slab has been poured for the first house in the development with further construction to ensue in the next two weeks.
Lakeview Investment Properties, an LLC owned by Jennifer Chester and son Blake Boone, bought all 22 residential lots in the Cedarbrook neighborhood in November 2023.
Since that sale, the City of Iola spent $1.7 million extending utilities to 16 of the 22 lots in the addition at the north edge of town. The six other non-serviced lots are located where the subdivision turns back to the northeast. Chester and Boone will be responsible for the cost of infrastructure extension to these additional lots. The mother and son duo paid $1,000 for each of the 22 lots, and will pay an additional $6,500 for each of the 16 serviced lots as they sell.
The city has given Chester and Boone 10 years to develop the lots, or the land will revert back to the city.
Boone said Monday they hope to build at least three houses a year in the development.
“In addition to the construction beginning in Cedarbrook, we are also finishing up two houses in town,” he said. “We want to get those houses in town finished first before we start on a second or third construction in Cedarbrook.”
Everything is going according to schedule, Boone said.
Page Enterprise of Parker is in charge of construction at Cedarbrook. “Owner Mike Page is the backbone of the project,” Boone said. “He tells us what we need to do and how to do it.”
Page said the City of Iola has been a good partner in the project. 
“We have had great cooperation with the city and administration on the utilities. It has been great working with them,” he said. According to Page, the first house is anticipated to be completed by the first week of December. “We poured the concrete on Friday and we’d like to see it fully completed within four months.”
As for the construction of any future houses in the addition, only time will tell, said Page. “We’re taking the pulse of the community and we will build as aggressively as the market will allow us,” he said. “We’re not going to build a bunch of inventory and then just sit on it.”
Boone agreed. “It just depends on interest rates and the market,” he said.
